Pluses and Minuses

Minus: When the Licking County Board of Elections completes its hearing challenging the independent candidacy of longtime Republican Brad Feightner on July 30, its members can and might deliberate and then vote behind closed doors. That's the legal view of Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt, who appears to correctly cite some troubling case law allowing public bodies to hide the public's business when they conduct hearings instead of meetings. We're at a loss to understand how any judge could find any gathering of a public body can fall outside of Ohio's crystal clear public meetings law. By definition, the presence of a quorum to conduct public business is a meeting. We would urge the elections board to, at a minimum, conduct its voting in open public session. The public has a right to know how each of the four members votes. If anything, a vote regarding elections should be held in the open.

Minus: While we completely disagree with the methods of local towing company owner Mark Christenberry, a candidate for Newark City Council, he does raise a good point. When it's not practical to tow illegally parked vehicles from business lots, using a boot tire lock could be effective. But it's not clear if city law allows the practice, meaning the city council needs a chance to study the issue and decide on the best approach. To us, if a car could be legally towed, it's hard to argue against the boot. Business owners have a right to make sure their parking spaces are open for customers and employees.

Plus: We're grateful to see the American Veteran Traveling Tribute's replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall making a stop in Licking County this weekend. The 360-foot wall is a scale replica of the memorial, which opened in Washington, D.C., in 1982. It has more than 58,000 names of people who were killed during the war. You can visit the memorial at The Johnstown Community Sportsman's Club, 7357 Sportsman Club Road NE, Johnstown, until 4 p.m. Sunday. It's open overnight tonight. We shall never forget the sacrifices our Vietnam veterans made for their country.

Plus: Congratulations to Licking Memorial Hospital for being named one of the nation's Most Wired Hospitals for 2013. As anyone who has been to LMH knows, the hospital has long been advanced in its use of technology, including being one of the early adapters of using technology to dispense the correct prescription drugs to the correct patients. In recent years, all medical records have been switched to digital formats allowing for quicker communications and accuracy. Well done!

Plus: Welcome back summer! We are all beginning for forget what blue skies looked like after more than two weeks of daily rain. Thankfully, our communities did not see the significant flooding many north of us dealt with this week. Let's hope the rest of the summer will be filled with sunny days and rain when it's needed.

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Pluses and Minuses

Minus: When the Licking County Board of Elections completes its hearing challenging the independent candidacy of longtime Republican Brad Feightner on July 30, its members can and might deliberate